The Frozen School
by FjordLine
Summary: The school is still and silent. Nobody has moved for hundreds of years. Why is the TARDIS landing the Doctor and Amy there, though, and what is the secret of the mysterious broken key?
1. Chapter 1

The school was silent. Crowded, bustling with life, but somehow silent. Everybody was standing still. Throughout the numerous corridors, classrooms, even toilets, not a single person was moving. Teachers were frozen in their emphatic gestures, made to a class that was, for once, at last, not talking to each other. A group of friends in a small circle around a table. Chatting, but their mouths weren't moving, and no sound emitted from their lips. A couple, both tall, were in the middle of a passionate kiss, holding each other tightly, embracing, in love - but no indication of how much either of them was enjoying themselves could be gleaned from their stone-cold and rock-solid bodies. Someone was reading, alone, in a corner, but his eyes didn't dart around the page, looking for the next happening in the chapter.

Through all of the bustling action that was happening, not a single sound nor movement could be heard nor seen. Even the dust remained the same. Somewhere in the building, however, a key was turning. Slowly, quietly, almost as quietly as the verging-on-dead lifeforms, the door creaked open, and the shadow moved. Playful, happy, lyrical music was playing. It was dark inside. It was happy. Joyful. The sound was tinny. Playing on an old record player.

"You will speak?" came a voice from everywhere, nowhere and somewhere all at the exact same time. Then, suddenly, a loud clang. Noise. Sweet, amazing, juicy, delicious noise. But it was silenced. No sounds any more. "Better." came the voice again, somehow filling the room despite its absolute mouselike softness. It was so lovely, so indescribably slow and soft and melodious and… the door slammed shut. The room was silent. The school was still once more.


	2. Chapter 2

"How about this one, Amy? A school. No movement for six hundred and ninety two years - everyone and everything in it dead, completely dead, and yet, despite its complete lack of life, the TARDIS has still brought us here. Any ideas?" The Doctor began once the TARDIS had landed. The soft hum of the interior seemed unfamiliar, still. It had gotten… higher pitched? More intense? He couldn't quite place his finger on quite what had changed since its crash to Earth, but something was different.

"I haven't got a clue," Amy replied helplessly, still feeling uncomfortable about the marvelous inside of the police box. "Surely you should have realised by now that I never do." she added.

"Well, I say we should have a little looksee, find out what's the matter, eh? Bit of curiosity never killed anyone. Or anything, for that matter," the Doctor suggested, pulling a lever. The doors opened slowly. It was dark outside. Amy stuck her head outside the doors, to check for any life. Nothing. No movement. No noise. She slowly stepped out, quickly followed by the Doctor. There was no wind, yet it was freezing. Odd. There was frost on the ground, and all of the trees were stripped bare of any leaves they might have once had. The grass was surprisingly green, however, and not overgrown in the slightest. Very odd.

The school was directly in front of them. It was a big, ominous place. Painted grey, and with massive white windows up at the top - not transparent, no, windows which were painted white. There was something remarkably not right about the school - not wrong, just sort of hovering in the middle ground between unduly normal and ridiculously extraordinary.

But what stood out most of all was the complete lack of noise, of sound, of anything that might have reassured them and told them "Yes, the universe is still alive,". There was a thick fog all around the place, not quite in a perfect circle, but most definitely enclosing themselves in the immediate vicinity of the school which stood right at the centre. He could see some trees in the distance, just as leafless as the ones in front of him, possibly even less. "All right, then. What to do?" the Doctor questioned, only half-rhetorically. He knew exactly where he intended to go. "Big school, big adventure, eh, Amy?"

She smiled reluctantly, hoping he would pick up that she didn't really want to be there. He smiled back, and carried on walking towards the school, stopping only to look at things that seemed impossible, in and of themselves, like flies that were hanging in the air, or a bird mid-flight that wasn't moving. It wasn't that everyone and thing in the vicinity of the school had died, it just seemed like they just stopped.

"Doctor, I'm getting the creeps," Amy said suddenly. There was something about the place that seemed as though… well, as though they weren't meant to be there. Like they shouldn't be disturbing the silence. "Can we leave?"

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. This soon? Even Sally Sparrow stuck through to the end, and the Weeping Angels were pretty damn scary. At least for a human. But, still, he could alway come back again. He had all the time in the world. "All right, I guess," he responded reluctantly, gesturing for her to go back into the TARDIS. When she reached the doors, though, she stopped for some bizarre reason. "Well, are you going to go in?" he asked, and she didn't indicate an answer. He waited a few seconds. Silence.

"Amy?"

Nothing.

"Amy, what's wrong?"

He tried to get a good look at her face, but there was no movement.

"Amy, are you all right?"

Her chest wasn't moving in the slightest, her body wasn't shivering any more in the cold.

"I'm going to get help,"

Amy had frozen, plain and simple. And she was blocking the only entry to the TARDIS.


	3. Chapter 3

"Amy, I'm getting the creeps," the Doctor said suddenly. There was something about the place that seemed as though… well, as though they weren't meant to be there. Like they shouldn't be disturbing the silence. "I think we should leave."

Thank god for that. She had been waiting to hear those words ever since she first stepped onto the grass. It seemed wholly unlike the Doctor, but hey - she wasn't about to start complaining. He turned and briskly made his way to the TARDIS doors. And stopped. Froze in that place. "Well, are you going to go in?" she asked, anxious to leave the planet. But he didn't move. Not in the slightest.

"Doctor?"

Nothing.

"Doctor, are you there?"

He was beginning to freak her out. His hair wasn't moving about in the wind. That was what first tipped her off. It was stuck in an impossible position.

"What's happening?"

He was frozen, just like the birds outside. She felt his arm - it might have been stone for all she knew. It was hard enough, anyway.

"Doctor, snap out of it!" she exclaimed, genuinely frightened. She didn't expect a response.

She didn't get one.

But what was that? In front of him, just before his eyes, she could see a key.

"Doctor!? What the hell is going on?"

It was long, silver, and old - very old. But, the end was broken. No, it could never open a door.

"What should I do?"

Should she grab it? She wasn't sure if that would be a bad idea or not. It was worth a try, anyway.

"Can you at least do something to show me you're still alive?"

It was heavy. Very heavy. She plucked it from the air, and put it immediately in her pocket. It could end up being useful.

"Doctor, you're blocking the TARDIS. Why?" She gulped. Glanced back. She couldn't shake that feeling that she was being watched by something, and whatever it was, she couldn't do anything. It was freezing cold. Bitterly so. She looked around. It was still quiet. Silent. Something was keeping her there, of that she was certain. And the possibility remained, however slim it was, that the Doctor was still living, somewhere out there.

"Doctor, I have to go into the school," she muttered, fully aware that he didn't know she was speaking.

Suddenly, she heard a voice across the mist. She couldn't tell with the short sentence, but it sounded like… No, it couldn't be…

"Amy, help me!"

It was definitely and irrevocably the voice of the Doctor.


	4. Chapter 4

It moved in the cold silence. A shiver ran through the air as it slithered its way around, invisible and silent. It heard both nothing and everything, as nothing was everything. But what was this? Faint noise, muffled voices. A paradox. Impossible. It shifted over to the source effortlessly, and saw the scene unfold. They were about to go back into their ship when they both froze. Silence once more.

The Doctor glanced around. It was suddenly darker than before, the sky an almost black and the grass vaguely brown. In fact, the whole world was brown, as far as he could see. The TARDIS was a stunning blue against the monotonal backdrop of his surroundings. Suddenly, a faint hissing came from his right. The silence was broken. The apparent source of the impossible sound appeared in front of him. "Hello," he began before he felt hands on his mouth, silencing his yet-to-be-formed words.

Amy looked again at the broken fragment of a key which she held in her hand. As she glanced upwards, she noticed a sudden change in her environment. Red. It was all red. The sky a vague pinkish hue, the grass a dull maroon… She looked behind her. The blue box was standing there, its pigment remarkably unchanged. She walked around it, feeling its sides. "Doctor…" she muttered to nobody in particular, not expecting a reply. She was almost opening her mouth again to speak more when she felt a silence fall upon her, unbreakable, unstoppable…

It turned quickly, seeing all in its minds. They were both frozen, and yet they were both moving. It hissed with rage, seeing the man, haughty and self-important, looking around. It slimpered in front of him, and he said, so loudly, "Hello". Before he could speak again, it wrapped around his face, smothering his next syllables, rendering him speechless. _The silence must be kept,_ it thought, remembering the previous disaster. _No sounds may emerge, no longer, no longer…_

Little did it know that elsewhere, the creature was rising once more…


	5. Chapter 5

Tumbling down through the cold, endless darkness, the Doctor found his feet landing on the ground once more. He gingerly opened his eyes. A blinding light seared his eyeballs, and he quickly squinted until he could see faint shapes above him. _I'm in a pit,_ he thought to himself, _and there are people above me._ He shrugged this revelation off quickly, though, as there was a rather more pressing matter confronting him: how to get out.

There was nothing inside except for the crumbling soil, and a faint thumping coming from underneath his feet. He reached into his pocket for the sonic screwdriver, hoping that he could use it as a torch if nothing else, but his hand clenched to find nothing held within its grasp.

"Blimey," he said, the word echoing around him after he said it. "Now, wait a minute. This pit isn't big enough to sustain the necessary symphonic vibrancies for an echo," he continued, hearing his words cluttering up the air around him, weaselling their ways into his ears until he could stand it no longer.

"Could whoever's making this happen please stop it?" he said, not expecting a response. But as if aggravated, his words got louder and harsher, angrier, until he found an echo of his own speech shouting at him.

"I've had just about enough of this, d'you hear me?" he continued, but the voices didn't relent. An incessant clamour for attention, every syllable repeated five, six times in the space of half a minute. They got louder and louder and louder until the Doctor could no longer hear his own thoughts over the neverending clatter inside his head, and he could take it no more, and the voices simply wouldn't stop beating at his head, until he snapped.

"Will you SHUT UP for FIVE MINUTES?" he shouted, the pit falling silent. "Thank you. Now, let me introduce myself. I'm the Doctor, I'm a Time Lord, and I can assure you that I mean you no harm. So, who do I have the… pleasure of speaking to?"

He shouldn't have been so naïve as to expect an answer.


	6. Chapter 6

Amy held the broken key as she was jolted side to side in the back of a small cart. Whoever had taken her wasn't in any particular hurry; she got the distinct feeling that she could've walked faster than she was moving.

"Y'wanna hurry up in there?" she shouted, not expecting a reply. She shook her head in frustration, and took another look at the key. _How was this floating? _She thought, recalling what had happened what seemed like months ago. When she had plucked the key from the air, she figured it'd come in handy, but something made it seem even more mystifying now than it was before.

While she had been lost in her thoughts, the small cart had come to a halt, and she was abruptly awoken from her trance by the door opening. She almost tumbled out, as a sudden lurch pushed the cart backwards.

_In we go, how did it go again? Right foot, left foot, was it? Did she need arms as well? It told her to run, just to see how it was done, but then it remembered as soon as it reached her feet._

Whispers in her ear told her to run, to get away as soon as she could, but before she could act on their instructions, she found herself turning to her left, and walking forwards.

_Right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot, it all seemed so easy, so sequential… Did they even notice? Do they know that I'm making them do this? Right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot…_

"Right, where am I?" she asked, trying desperately not to let the fear in her voice show, but a small quiver betrayed the terror of the situation. She was moving. Against her will. This was impossible. She was going to have _strong_ words with the Doctor when she got back.

_They never usually realised this soon. She must've been quite perceptive. Oh, well. Nothing she could do now! Right foot, left foot, turn…_

An unseen hand dragged her into a small building, and she was thinking that there was surprisingly little furniture when the same hand pushed her over.

_Right foot, left foot, wait, no wait, no, get out, get out, GET OUT!_

She was falling all of a sudden, grasping at the air for something to hold on to.

_No, no! NO! _

_Falling_

Falling.

_Falling_

Falling.

_Falling_

Falling.

_Falling._

Thud.

She hit the bottom of the pit, and was sure she heard one of her bones cracking. It couldn't have been that big a fall, surely? But her leg hurt so badly, and she couldn't feel her feet, let along move them, and at that moment in time what she needed most was someone who could help her, who could fix her… Yeah, she could really do with a-

"Doctor," she groaned miserably, barely realising that she was speaking her thoughts aloud. "Doctor…"

_Medical help, that's what they both needed, they needed to fix her leg and make clean up the blood a little…_

A voice whispered back in her ear, so soft, so quiet…

"Yes?"


	7. Chapter 7

_It had been there for at least an hour. This body was drifting in and out of sleep. Bor-ing._

_Forcefully, it ejected itself from her body, and sat in the air._

_What was that? It heard the words before it recognised the voice._

"Doctr, what's happened? How did you get here? You were-"

"Frozen? At the door of the TARDIS?"

"Well, yeah, but that still doesn't – wait, how did you know?"

"Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey, it was a mass hallucination brought on by whatever's keeping us here," the Doctor began, revelling in his opportunity to show off his intelligence.

"So whatever this thing is, yeah, it's, like, psychic?"

"Yes, Amy. This thing is "like psychic"."

_Should it interrupt? It knows. It knows exactly what's happening, but… how will they react?_

"Amy, can you feel something? Kind of… slimy? Cold? Just sort of hovering?"

_It decides._

"_I know what's keeping you here,_"_ it says, almost immediately regretting its actions._

"OK, Doctor, something definitely just said… something. I couldn't hear it, though. It's like it-"

"Didn't want you to know. There's a reason for that."

"Oh yeah? What's that, then?"

"It doesn't."


End file.
